This week on How on Earth, Beth finishes up her interview with Professor Doug Seals, aging researcher. He explains the role of vascular damage in heart disease and how lifestyle choices such as exercise and diet can maintain healthy vasculature. In addition, he discusses some of his experiments in older humans with supplements and pharmacologic agents such as mito-Q, NAD+ supplementation and cur cumin. For more detail, visit his lab website (https://www.colorado.edu/intphys/research/cardiovascular.html) or the Healthy Aging site (https://healthyagingproject.org/).

This week’s How on Earth guest, Dr Doug Seals, researches vascular aging. Several events occur as we age that conspire to damage blood vessels, culminating in what is popularly known as hardening of the arteries. But lifestyle modifications to exercise and diet can prevent and even reverse this trend. This week’s show gives background and mechanisms of this aging; next week’s episode will delve more deeply into solutions and interventions. To find out more about the Seals’ lab research visit their website: https://healthyagingproject.org/Host:Producer:Beth BennettEngineer: Beth BennettExecutive Producer: Beth Bennett
Listen to the show:

Health Impacts of Wildfire Smoke (start time: 4:22) It’s peak wildfire season. Smoke from forest and grass fires contains particulates that can irritate eyes, throat and lungs — especially in children, the elderly, and people already suffering from asthma, allergies, heart disease. How On Earth host Susan Moran interviews Anthony Gerber, MD/PhD, a pulmonologist and an associate professor of medicine at National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado, Denver, about the medical risks of breathing smokey air and what people can do to minimize the impact. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment also offers info and warnings on air quality in Colorado.

Detained Migrant Children Suffer Medically (start time: 17:02) Since April, when the Trump administration’s controversial zero-tolerance policy went into effect to crack down on families crossing the border illegally, more than 2,300 migrant children have been separated from their parents and detained in government detention centers. More recently, about 200 of the children have been reunited with their parents, but bulk of them have not. As a result, many of the children suffer from physical and mental health problems. Colleen Kraft, a pediatrician and president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, talks with host Susan Moran about the medical impacts on migrant children.

We also talk with Boulder Psychiatrist Dr. Will Van Derveer, who leads the Integrative Psychiatry Institute. They will hold a professional conference this October 19-21 in Boulder. Their goal is to educate more health practitioners about how body imbalances, such as gut challenges and mold infections, along with undiagnosed trauma often underlie much of what leads people to seek psychiatric health. One of the modalities that will be discussed at this professional conference is psychedelics.

This week on How on Earth, Beth talks to author Dr Marc Bekoff, Professor Emeritus, CU Boulder. His new book has the wonderful title of Canine Confidential. If you enjoy dogs, dog parks, and watching them interact with each other and people, you’ll enjoy this book!Hosts: Beth Bennett and Gretchen GeibelProducer: Beth BennettEngineer: Maeve ConranAdditional contributions: Joel ParkerExecutive Producer: Beth Bennett
Listen to the show:

Junk Raft (starts 6:20) Marcus Eriksen discusses what can and cannot be done about the “plastic smog” of microscopic debris permeating the world’s ocean, from the state-sized floating islands of plastic in the Pacific, to the microscopic debris that sinks all the way down the the deepest parts of the Pacific, OR gets eaten and into the food chain. Eriksen is author of the book Junk Raft, recounting his adventures when he sailed the Pacific from L.A. to Hawaii on a raft made of garbage to bring attention to the issue.

The Green Reaper (starts 19:10) Elizabeth Fournier, a mortician from Oregon, is known to some as “The Green Reaper.” She offers and advocates for natural burial services for those who want to extend their environmental ethos from life on into death.

This week on How on Earth, Beth interviews Dr Lee Know, author of Mitochondria and theFuture of Medicine. These amazing organelles, which allow complex life on Earth to exist, do more than “just” make ATP. Ask that isn’t enough! They are intimately involved in many aspects of health and disease. The good news is that we can optimize their function to attain longer, healthier lives.You can see the book at https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/mitochondria-and-the-future-of-medicine/

Two epidemics sweeping the developed world are Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.This week on How on Earth, Beth interviews Dr Steven Masley about his book, The Better Brain Solution in which he explores the connection between diet (and other lifestyle factors) and these diseases. Based on the results of numerous clinical trials he has conducted in his medical practice, Masley presents a program to prevent and possibly reverse this metabolic syndrome. You can find his book and other information at https://drmasley.com/better-brain-solution/

This week’s show brings you the following feature interview:Protecting Ocean Biodiversity (start time: 2:42) In honor of World Environment Day (today), World Oceans Day (Friday) the March for the Ocean (Saturday), and Capitol Hill Ocean Week (all week), we examine one of the biggest marine conservation tools: Marine Protected Areas. What’s working? What’s not, and why? And what does this have to do with residents of landlocked states such as Colorado? A lot. Hoe On Earth hosts Susan Moran and Sadie Babits interview Dr. Kirsten Grorud-Colvert, an assistant professor of marine ecology at Oregon State University. This interview expands our series called The Ocean Is Us. For info on this week’s local March for the Ocean events, go to Colorado Ocean Coalition. National events and resources at Capitol Hill Ocean Week, March for the Ocean, and Blue Frontier Campaign.

Michael Pollan: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence. We speak with New York Times Bestselling science writer Michael Pollan about his new book that features LSD and magic mushrooms. Pollan will give a book talk in Denver this Thursday — at the Trinity Methodist Church. On Friday, Pollan’s Boulder Booktalk will be at Boulder’s First Congregational Church.

Support KGNU

How On Earth is produced by a small group of volunteers at the studios of KGNU, an independent community radio station in the Boulder-Denver metro area. KGNU is supported by the generosity and efforts of community members like you. Visit kgnu.org to learn more.